


Vid Commentary on Tall Cool One

by secretlytodream, yourlibrarian



Series: Reading Fan Vids [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Author Commentary, Commentary, Gen, Meta, Video
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 07:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5819773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretlytodream/pseuds/secretlytodream, https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being who they are, Tony and Loki don't just mirror one another -- they smash right on through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vid Commentary on Tall Cool One

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Tall Cool One](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5824126) by [secretlytodream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretlytodream/pseuds/secretlytodream), [yourlibrarian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian). 



> I was fannishly excited at this vid and was dying to pick it apart in a meta way, and secretlytodream agreed to add her own perspective. [Lyrics are available here.](http://www.songlyrics.com/robert-plant/tall-cool-one-lyrics/)

We'll go through the vid chronologically, and our comments will have our initials in bold below.

 **YL** : Before SD began vidding we talked about the overall theme of the vid, as well as specific comparison clips. The idea was that this could be a ship vid for those who are shippy about this pair, but that it should also make an argument about the way these two characters mirror one another in both personality and personal arcs.

 **SD** : I have to admit, this is by far not my main pairing in the MCU, but when YL pitched this idea to me, I was intrigued. The more we talked, the more I realized how many parallels there were between the two characters, and I have a soft spot for parallels, both visual and story wise. I love video with deep and layered portrayals of characters, so I was super excited to take on this challenge. 

**YL** : I loved the motion that SD brought to the start of the vid with that pan up the rainbow bridge. As a general audience grab I think pulling the viewer in from the getgo is obviously a good move. The Stark Tower shots were added late in the process but it's amazing how well they pair up -- the "capital city" sort of look with those tunneled shots, and the contrast of day and night. But it isn't until SD's next bit that I think the point for the opening becomes clearer. 

**SD** : I always try to put expositional clips/scenes in the beginning, there’s no point to dive right into it from the very start. You have to give the viewers a second to understand what they’re getting themselves into and start the action right after it.

 **YL** : SD had originally assembled some clips reflecting them as children, as a way of creating a personal chronology structure for the vid. But while their childhoods are critical to their comparison, there weren't good clips for that comparison to be made in a visual way. There were no shots of Tony with Howard, and the one of Odin with Loki looked quite domestic. So we decided on a later point in the video to present their family issues.

Instead of a chronology, the vid sets up a factual and emotional comparison. As we see the power and status that both characters were raised with, it's followed by the way both crash and burn as a result of their arrogance and misplaced priorities -- showing the extremes their lives go to.

 **SD** : I added a clip of STARK letters turning on, added a bit of extra zoom to the clip itself to keep up the dynamic of those wide angle shots, and I like how it interprets the "beginning" - the light comes on, the letters are shining, etc., which was my initial thought/idea. It set up the pace of the video, and now I had the opportunity to play with “highs” and contrasted “lows” to show the depth and different sides to the characters’ journeys.

 **YL** : The choice of the song had been mine, triggered by both its title and a particular line: "you like my loving machine, I like your bloodshot eyes." I saw that as a reference to the Iron Man suit and Loki's Jotun eye color. The song originally seemed like a good representation of Tony's POV, in that he is both addressing his "tall, ~~frosty~~ cool one" and that the music by Robert Plant seemed like it would fit into his playlists. However, the lyrics would be a better fit for a lusty ship vid rather than one that tried to explore the ways in which Loki and Tony share strengths, weaknesses, and personal issues. 

**SD** : This song is definitely not something I would usually choose, but for this particular vid and idea it seems extremely fitting. I agree with the lyrical interpretation being more fitting for a different kind of video, but on the other hand I think the contrast works very well in this particular case.

 **YL** : So partway through the process we agreed that trying to prioritize lyrical matches was not likely to work well, so SD just worked in connections where they were possible.

 **SD** : Yes, and we managed to grasp some pretty interesting moments, sometimes fun, sometimes angsty. 

**YL** : The first lyrics move us on from the settings of fame and privilege both share, to the way each is somehow unknowable and hidden, even while being such public figures. 

_"I'm like a strange cat running in the heat of the night, I've got a fire in my eyes"_

While most people would probably agree Loki is the stranger cat, both could be said to have fire in their eyes. But what we see at the start is their armor -- Loki emerging in full ceremonial garb, and Tony in flight. Both don't just have emotional walls, they have physical barriers between them and the world. In different ways, both are still lonely even in a crowd of people.

Sidenote: I really liked SD's use of the fireworks shot to tie in with "heat of the night." 

**SD** : I was surprised how similar those scenes were, it makes you think and wonder about the similarities between the two characters. I feel like this is exactly what we needed in the beginning of the video, to set the tone, to prepare viewers so they pay closer attention throughout the video.

 **YL** : Their battle armor isn't just for battle though, it's their costume in a show. As Tony quickly sussed out about Loki, they are full-tilt divas. For them, public ceremonies are "a date with delight." They like applause and being the center of attention.

_"Some kinda moanin' in the heart of the storm, ooh, I'm gonna love you so hard, you'll want your loving done."_

The use of the applause and adoring crowds for these lines seems perfect. The difference, of course, is that Tony stepped out from behind Howard's shadow some time ago by the time we meet him in Iron Man. Loki is still being overshadowed by father and brother. So while the clips of Tony echo Howard's own appearance at the World's Fair, he's clearly the star of his own show. Loki still has to imagine being the star of his.

 **SD** : I feel like it’s two roads that slowly come together –- they might have started a bit different, but they have a similar destiny in a way, and I like how everything is building up to it.

 **YL** : The highs of adulation though lead to the crashes of those arrogant egos. Tony smashing into the ground came from IM3 after he suffers an overwhelming personal attack. The seed of his defeat came from his behavior years earlier, ignoring and humiliating one of his own admirers. Loki's came from, not only underestimating his enemies, but by literally taunting The Hulk until he was smashed into silence. 

While canon isn't clear about what happened to Loki when he was with The Other and Thanos, his meeting with The Other in Avengers suggests it wasn't anything good. Similarly, we never saw all the details of Tony's life before he was captured by the Ten Rings, but we do get to understand the trauma of the experience. In each case, being the pawns of a powerful figure led to their imprisonment -- Loki started a war at Thanos' bidding, and Tony created ever more powerful weapons to satisfy Obadiah's direction for the company.

Sidenote: It is during Tony's video scene here that he is literally referred to as a prince by the Ten Rings, who complain they have been paid a pittance for the job of killing such an important figure.

 **SD** : I just love how the scenes change each other -- from being on top of the world to falling to their knees, so to say. I also like the fact that it's in the beginning, after showing this grandeur of their environment -- palace halls, Stark Tower, all the people cheering. I think it's a very nice way to explore the characters in the way that shows how someone can lose everything in a blink of an eye, and in this case these characters have gone through that.

 **YL** : SD managed another lyrical tie in at the line "Now with my one hand loose, I aim to satisfy" by focusing on Loki's hand movement as he changes the wine into snakes. This whole section running through to "I'm your tall cool one with the crazy feet" contrasts the fact that both are jokesters, troublemakers, and thrill seekers who use their words and pointed humor to both get their way and unnerve their enemies. This often comes out of a sense of anger and offense, which is less obvious in Tony's use of it against the senators and Hammer in the hearing scene, but just as true. Tony doesn't feel he should need to answer to anyone for his actions and plans. Loki doesn't feel Thor should be crowned and is about to make sure it doesn't happen, even if that puts him in direct opposition to his own authority -- Odin.

 **SD** : I just thought that the shot of Loki turning was very beautiful and has some dynamic in it (the turning part), and then I could lead everything into the court scene with Tony doing basically the same thing –- here we have both visual parallels and a nice transition into the next segment.

 **YL** : The Stuttgart crowd scene is contrasted with Iron Man's suit removal just before launching into the juxtaposition of two men realizing the power they have at hand. Loki recognizes the power in the mind gem staff and blasts out with it, just as Tony realizes that Thor's attack on him has superpowered his suit's energy levels and so he blasts him back with it. In both cases it's a signifier for how each has the ability to turn a potential disaster into either a victory or, at least, a survivable situation. When Loki comes through the tesseract portal having loosened Thanos' grip, he is weakened and momentarily disoriented, but he has a plan to turn the situation to his advantage. Tony realizes that despite being up against such a strong opponent, he can turn his actions back against him.

 **SD** : It worked pretty awesome and seems like they were fighting each other which simultaneously seems like parallels and like an AU-ish twist to the video, which I personally like. And it flows smoothly enough into the next sequence with their actual fight.

 **YL** : The "I'm so tall and you're so cute" to "You're gonna rock your tall cool one" section reads as a ship narrative for the two. But even this section isn't dedicated only to that. The line about "playing wild" is also about the risks both take and how they play for high stakes. In Tony's invention of a new element and Loki's use of the casket, neither man thinks small. But those very objects are borrowed power from their fathers. As Tony says about it in IM2, "Been dead for 20 years and you're still taking me to school." 

**SD** : I loved how the “let’s play wild like the wild cats do” bit turned out, especially with their facial expressions. It also changes the mood – again – a little bit, so this way we maintain the “rollercoaster” factor of this video. I personally tried to add different emotions through the scene/clip choice, facial expressions etc. I feel like it was imperative for the video to show the different sides of the characters.

 **YL** : From there we move into the "You stroll, you jump, you're hot and you tease" repeats. The following bits all relate to their similar actions and experiences, including their falls through space and the initial belief that they were dead. However, those similar descents also speak to the way both are alone. Loki obviously feels isolated and rejected when he drops through the void. Tony has been unable to get through to Pepper, he's separated from his teammates, and he alone experiences those sights. As we see in IM3, he's still traumatized by that brief trip. We don't get the luxury of that same insight into Loki, but canon was already showing him to be suffering a mental breakdown by the end of Thor 1. It's pretty unlikely that the trip made things any better given that his mental state remains a topic of discussion in Avengers 1.

 **SD** : I had the idea of the multiple Lokis compared to the shot of all Tony's costumes flying in to help in IM3. Tony and his suits are pretty much one, and Loki's mirrors are all still him (which you can see when they all fly back after Thor's hammer strike). It is also a throwback to the grandeur we explored in the very beginning – Loki’s trick was to multiply himself, and Tony’s trick (sort of) was to make as many suits as he possibly could as his coping mechanism.

 **YL** : We then see yet another great selection from SD, that of Tony's palladium poisoning and Loki's discovery of his Jotun blood. I see this comparison as a perfect example of their secretiveness, their distressing discoveries and traumas, and their isolation. Both these guys grew up lonely and that likely had a lot to do with their inability to overcome personal distances as adults. But they also suffer from things done to them, specifically the sins of their father figures. Tony wouldn't be dying if it weren't for the attack he suffered, a betrayal by Obadiah. He's delayed the effects but they're still reaching him beyond Obadiah's death. Loki is shocked into realizing a lifetime of being considered inferior had a very real source -- Odin's lies. Yet each keeps their defect, their danger, secret from those around them. Tony is saved by outside help -- extra time from SHIELD and a solution from his real father. Loki doesn't get that from his true parent or from his friends. We never see him confront his beloved mother with her role in Odin's lies until Thor 2, well after so much damage has taken place.

Speaking of friends and perceived betrayals, we move into the fight scenes of Loki and Thor fighting in the Bifrost observatory with Tony and Rhodey's fight scene in IM2 in his Malibu mansion. In each case, their friend is attempting to stop them from what is seen as out-of-control behavior with dangerous consequences. Rhodey steals one of Tony's suits and they lay waste to his home in the confrontation. Thor ends up destroying the Bifrost to stop Loki's attack on Jotunheim. In each case, Loki and Tony are spoiling for a fight with the most important people in their lives out of a sense of despair. Tony thinks he's about to die and is afraid his work is going to be taken from him and militarized. Loki has just seen his act of patricide to win Odin's approval negated by Thor's return, and he resorts to even more drastic steps to succeed. 

We then see Loki attempting to destroy Jotunheim with the bifrost contrasted with Tony returning to Gulmira to destroy the members of the Ten Rings that kidnapped him. In each case, they are returning to the scene of a crime against them -- the death of their previous selves. Learning he was Jotun destroyed Loki's sense of self and his place in Asgard. Tony's experience with Yinsen and his kidnapping put an end to his narrow view of the world and his role in it.

 **SD** : I just love how YL handled this whole sequence. I think the theme of betrayal is very strong with both characters, add to that the parental problem and we have a very complex story in and of itself. At first I thought it’d be close to impossible to show all of it in a relatively short amount of time (the song), but with discussing this sequence in detail, we came up with a certain sequence of clips, and I think we managed to incorporate so much more in those few clips than we previously wanted. I also love how revenge and redemption and all the personal changes and self-destruction that follow are so close to the betrayal scene in the video. 

**YL** : Of course, at the heart of many of their problems are their father figures. I love that SD set this section in the "Going down, going down" part of the song, and had Obadiah yanking out Tony's reactor at the "Hey hey Mama!"

Obadiah's betrayal, nearly literally ripping out Tony's heart, matches up well with the moment that broke Loki. Loki's confrontation with Odin in the vault shows he's so overcome that he loses his power with words and screams at Odin. This contrasts wonderfully with Tony's enforced silence where he can't use his words when confronted with his father figure's motives.

Yet as the next clips show, even when they find out these bitter truths, they can't turn their backs on these central people just yet. When Odin collapses, Loki reaches towards him hesitantly, distress clear on his face. In the IM deleted scenes, Tony offers a hand to Obadiah when he's asked for help before the ceiling collapses and Obadiah dies. 

**SD** : Haha, the "hey hey Mama" was actually a - as I like to call them - happy accident in vidding :P I was throwing clips on the timeline for positioning them after, and somehow this particular clip ended up being on that particular line and I was like HA! And then I went back and forth trying to decide whether I should keep it or not. I thought it was a bit too much, but still couldn't NOT use it! Again, given the rollercoaster of emotions we tried to explore in the video, I think it fits pretty well. 

**YL** : I love the moment when Iron Man pops up to confront Loki through the broken window. In some ways that clip sums up the whole video -- a visual statement of each being the other's "mirror image" with the use of the glass divider. Yet as we see, not even the glass divides them anymore -- their meeting has shattered it. Instead, Loki is standing _inside Tony's home_ and Tony is hanging outside " _in space_ ". They are different and yet overlapping.

As the music switches back to the "Lighten up, lighten up" refrain, the vid shifts back to the lighter side of the two. But this is less of a changed gear from the daddy issues so much as demonstrating their results. Both men learned to use humor and their words to mask what they're feeling as well as to get their way. So Loki and Thor's corridor walk in Thor 2 is where Loki is both needling Thor as well as attempting to disarm him. This is contrasted with Tony poking Bruce in the carrier lab to see if he could spot the Hulk in him while trying to turn Bruce into his new science buddy. 

We then see Loki bargaining with Laufey contrasted with Tony convincing Bruce to work on Vision in Avengers 2. Although these clips go by fast I think they leave behind the message that neither apple has fallen far from his paternal tree. Loki's plan with Laufey is the sort of [deceit he learned from Odin](http://www.ancient-mythology.com/norse/odin.php). And Tony's attempt to "protect the world" is basically what Howard thought he was doing -- their different means are no guarantee they'd end up with different results. Contrasted with the previous scene we see both the humor but also the danger in the things these two think and say.

 **SD** : As I mentioned so many times before in this commentary, I liked how this video is a perfect balance between angst, serious character study, humour and action! It's like the video IS the same as those characters with so many different sides!

 **YL** : There are a few other comparisons that didn't get included. One was how Thor and Steve seem to play similar roles for them in terms of contrasting their rebelliousness with the party line. Both Loki and Tony are held up by their father figure in comparison with a blond, "perfect" individual beloved by their parent. We considered contrasting the scene of Steve and Tony arguing on the helicarrier (the 'put on the suit' bit) with Thor and Loki arguing after Thor pulls Loki from the quinjet, but in the end this was dropped in favor of other material.

There were also other ideas about the the legacy of their parents in creating enemies. For example in IM2, the son of a potentially wronged father becomes Tony's enemy and Odin and Bor's actions have brought enemies to Asgard's doors. Both Tony and Loki leave enemies in their own wake due to their self-centered natures. I thought of contrasting the IM2 scenes with the images of Odin at war with the Frost Giants but that seemed like a less clear argument than could be made with other clips.

 **SD** : Yes, there still was so much more that could portray the characters in a very interesting way, but sadly didn’t make into the video. We don’t have all the time in the world, unfortunately! :) But we tried to include the scenes/parallels that were the most interesting and clear for the viewers. Hopefully we succeeded!


End file.
